i want to stop smoking

[bben46]

I probably quit before you were born - 1968. You need some kind of motivation to quit. Mine was price . They raised the price from twenty five cents (US) a pack in the machine at work) to thirty cents (US). and I refused to pay that extra five cents. To make it more difficult, I was in the Marine Corps at the time and almost all of my friends smoked. Now, they cost close to $3.50 US where I live - South Carolina, the least expensive state in the US to buy cigarettes. New Jersey, the most expensive state costs about US $6.25 a pack. At those costs, a pack a day habit would cost you over $180 a month or over $1200 a year.

 

Two of my good friends quit in the late 80s. They made a bet with each other. The first one to pick up a cigarette had to pay the other one $100. They both had good jobs and could afford it, but neither one would give in. One has since died, the other is still smoke free. He claims he cant start now because there is no way to pay up if he does.

 

The strongest motivation is my girlfriends. She had been trying to quit for years. Did not smoke around me at all. Then she was diagnosed with emphysema and told that if she didn't quit she would be dead within 2 years. That was 4 years ago. She is still alive and will not go anywhere that smoking is permitted or even visit homes where they smoke.

 

Good luck with your quitting.

[myrmaad]

BBen, you've been around this forum since I showed up to know how crazy I am about my husband. We just celebrated his 53rd birthday this week. He's been smoking since he was 15. Luckily it hasn't effected his health too much, but every day it's a gamble isn't it. I feel like we're just getting started even though we've been together since I was 18. I could easily quit if it meant he would too, or if it meant I had even 15 more seconds with him than I would have otherwise.

[Lip]

How can smoking be so addictive?

Does it not taste sick at all? Your literally sucking in smoke and dirty fumes I think.

I don't smoke and will never smoke, you should maybe try them Patches, apparently they can be good at helping smokers to stop mate :)

[falloutx]

omg patches is a pain on the but the patch can kill my addiction but im still am so yeah dont worry all will work out in the end ill try to stop smoking slowly day by day

[QQuix]

We have a famous physicist in Brazil that used to do volunteer work in a large penitentiary. He wrote a book about his experiences there.

 

He reports dozens of prisoners coming to him with exactly the same saying: "Sorry, Doc. I quit cocaine, I quit crack, I quit marijuana. But I just cant quit cigarettes"

Then he goes on explaining how nicotine stimulates some pleasure areas of the brain and how you get chemically dependent on this 'pleasure'.

 

You have already taken the most important and difficult step: to decide to quit.

Now it is a matter of some discipline and 'pain resistance' (nicotine patches do help to alleviate the 'pain', not to remove it). And if you are planning to reduce smoking a little a day, I am sorry to inform you that it does not work. It is an illusion, The brain playing tricks, I suppose. I tried it several times. Never heard of anybody that managed to quit this way.

 

The first month will not be easy. Believe me. I quit 3 months ago . . . after smoking for 40++ years.

[XanAlderon]

I vowed to myself to never ever smoke!!

[buddah]

TLDR entire thread.....talk with your doctor.

 

I gave chantax (sp) a try this summer and cut down to almost nothing....but had an alergic reaction to it....broke out in a horrendous rash with constant itching.

 

I am still trying and have selected another day to try again cold turkey 20 Dec, my birthday....it shall be my present to myself.

 

Been sucking on them coffin nails for 45 years now.....I know it is killing me, but it is harder to give up than drugs or alcohol. (Personal experience, sober for the most part for 35 years now...I do enjoy a taste on occasion, but only one) But I am going to keep trying to quit till I do or it kills me.

 

I wish you well, and that is from the heart.

 

Micky

[Javalin]

Best of luck to those who are quitting smoking.

 

Here is a little story about my dad, earlier this year, and how he managed to quit in a single day without the use of patches, gum.

 

On February 12th 2008, he tried to smoke a cigarette, but it made him feel REALLY sick. So he cut down from about 10-20 cigarettes per day, to half a cigarette. But couldn't even smoke that later in the day.

 

So he basically quit on that day the cigarette made him feel sick. and even know, 11 months later, he's not had a single cigarette, or a drag of one.

 

Maybe he could be a role model to those who are wishing to quit?

You don't need patches, gum or whatever else.

 

Just willpower.

 

Best of Luck to you all in quitting smoking! :D

 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Jav'

[falloutx]

TLDR entire thread.....talk with your doctor.

 

I gave chantax (sp) a try this summer and cut down to almost nothing....but had an alergic reaction to it....broke out in a horrendous rash with constant itching.

 

I am still trying and have selected another day to try again cold turkey 20 Dec, my birthday....it shall be my present to myself.

 

Been sucking on them coffin nails for 45 years now.....I know it is killing me, but it is harder to give up than drugs or alcohol. (Personal experience, sober for the most part for 35 years now...I do enjoy a taste on occasion, but only one) But I am going to keep trying to quit till I do or it kills me.

 

I wish you well, and that is from the heart.

 

Micky

 

 

been there done that budda i didnt know its like i feel like crap when quiting i manage to stop my addicition tyranny in 1995 for almost like one week but i have sinuses attacks lol i guess cigs cure it

[bben46]

The sinus attack was your addiction playing tricks on you.

What you need is not will power, but Won't power.

For the urges, you need something to stick in your mouth - I chewed toothpicks for several months. I kept a box in the pocket where I used to carry my cigarettes. So when I unconsciously reached for a cigarette, I found toothpicks. It helped some. I did not use any nicotine drug - there weren't any in 1968.

 

I got almost no support from my friends. Smoking was so common that they couldn't understand why I wanted to quit. I was offered cigarettes by friends who knew I had quit every day.

 

The hardest was sitting at a table with my smoking friends in the smoky NCO club and drinking beer. I also cut down on my beer so I wouldn't get so drunk that I would forget and take an offered cigarette. My wife smoked also, she didn't quit, but respected my quitting and stopped smoking around me. We divorced several years later, she still smokes and as a retired nurse with many medical problems, should know better.

 

Like everyone here has said, It isn't easy. And you have to make up your mind that you really want to quit or it won't work.

 

Good luck